Rising Home Supply Failed to Lift Existing Home Sales In March

Brian Turner
18 Apr, 2024
New York City

Existing home sales in March declined as buyers struggled to find homes amid elevated prices and rising mortgage rates. 

Existing home sales, which include single-family and multi-family homes, decreased in March by 4.3% to an annual pace of 4.19 million, the National Association of Realtors said in its monthly update Thursday. 

Existing home sales decreased 3.7% from 4.35 million in March 2023. 

"Though rebounding from cyclical lows, home sales are stuck because interest rates have not made any major moves," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. 

Despite the higher availability of homes, home sales declined and the median home price increased. 

Homes available for sale at the end of March increased by 4.7% from February to 1.11 million units, and by 14.4% from 970,000 a year ago. 

The median existing-home sale price increased 4.8% from a year ago to $393.500, the ninth monthly price increase in a row and the record price for the month of March. 

Higher mortgage rates weighed on the market, and 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.88% as of the end of last week, compared to 6.82% in the previous week and 6.27% a year ago. 

Single-family home sales declined to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.8 million in March, down 4.3% from 3.97 million in February and 2.8% from the prior year. 

The median existing single-family home price increased 4.7% from a year ago to $397,200.

Regionally, sales declined in the larger markets but rose in the Northeast. 

Existing home sales in the Northeast increased 4.2% from February to a 500,000 annual pace; in the Midwest, sales shrank 1.9% to an annual rate of 1.01 million; in the South, sales decreased 5.9% to an annual rate of 1.9 million; and in the West, sales dropped 8.2% to an annual rate of 780,000 in March, respectively.